Providing potable water can be difficult, especially in undeveloped locations where water treatment infrastructure is not available. One approach for addressing this need is photocatalytic water treatment, where a catalyst is placed in water to be treated and then illuminated to provide energy for desired chemical reactions.
However, existing materials (e.g., TiO2) for photocatalytic water treatment tend to suffer from the disadvantage of only absorbing a small part of the solar spectrum, thereby reducing efficiency and the speed/efficacy of treatment. Attempts have been made to alleviate this loss of efficiency, but the resulting materials and structures tend to be costly due to fabrication complexity and/or difficulties. Accordingly, it would be an advance in the art to provide improved catalyst-based water treatment.